Part 4

_The Village Bride_ (_L'Accordée de Village_).--This is the short title of the work "Un Mariage à l'instant où le père de l'accordée délivre la dot à son gendre." The first title was _Un Père qui vient de payer la dot de sa Fille_. The scene is a great country kitchen, which has a freedom from furniture that is refreshing in these days of senseless overcrowding. Stone steps lead from the kitchen to an upper chamber. A shelf, a gun, a lantern, a great cupboard, and a few chairs and a table, would almost complete an inventory of the movables. Twelve people, arranged as though they were on the stage of a theatre, or for a _tableau vivant_, take part in the scene. The parish official, sitting at a small table, has registered the marriage, and one of the children toys with the document. The father of the bride, a venerable old man with white hair, has just handed to his son-in-law a small leather bag, containing his daughter's marriage portion, and he is now holding forth in true melodramatic style, his face to the gallery, and, as one may fancy, the limelight streaming on his head. The bridegroom, a tall, handsome fellow, listens in a respectful attitude; and the pretty bride, whose eyes are downcast, has her arm linked in his, and the fingers of one hand are laid lovingly upon one of his hands. Her other arm is held by her mother, {52} a comely matron, dressed in simple and picturesque attire. The bride's sisters and brother watch with intense interest, except one little girl of five or six years, who feeds a hen and chickens on the kitchen floor. Another sister has her head upon the bride's shoulder, and a third is weeping. In the incident of one of the chickens, balanced on the edge of the dish of water, trying its wings, some writers have seen an allegorical reference to the marriage. It is said that the head of the bride is a portrait of Mademoiselle Ducreux when she was fifteen years of age. In this painting Greuze's tendency to cause his figures to assume self-conscious poses is apparent; but there is not so much of theatricality here as to spoil the picture, and thus one may still derive some pleasure from a contemplation of the scene. It is interesting to remember that this is the picture which caused such a sensation during the last few days of the Salon of 1761. It was bought by Monsieur de Marigny for 3,000 livres, and at the sale of his pictures, twenty years later, the price paid for it was 16,650 livres. The picture is now in the Louvre in Paris. It has often been reproduced. During the life of the artist it was engraved by Flipart, and then was reproduced in colours by Alix. Greuze also painted a replica of the picture.

_Portrait of Maximilien Marie Isidore Robespierre_.--In John Morley's "Critical Miscellanies" {53} we are told that "In the Salon of 1791 an artist exhibited Robespierre's portrait, simply inscribing it _The Incorruptible_. Throngs passed before it every day, and ratified the honourable designation by eager murmurs of approval. The democratic journals were loud in panegyric on the unsleeping sentinel of liberty. They loved to speak of him as the modern Fabricius, and delighted to recall the words of Pyrrhus, that it is easier to turn the sun from its course than to turn Fabricius from the path of honour." Mr. A. G. Temple, F.S.A., has written recently that efforts have been made to identify the Salon portrait with this one, but unsuccessfully. Robespierre's ancestors were Irish people, but he was born at Arras. After a successful career as a lawyer he became a member of the States-General, and Mirabeau prophesied, "That young man believes what he says; he will go far." Carlyle has described him as "That anxious, slight, ineffectual-looking man, under thirty, in spectacles; his eyes (were the glasses off) troubled, careful; with upturned face, snuffing dimly the uncertain future times; complexion of a multiplex, atrabiliar colour, the final shade of which may be pale sea-green." He was small and weakly, fond of solitude, and sober in most things except in speech. Fluent and rhetorical, he soon won fame with the populace; but an analysis of his speeches reveals them "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." The latest criticism has dubbed him "a phrase-making {54} charlatan." On July 28, 1794, still clad in the inevitable blue coat, white waistcoat, short yellow breeches, white stockings, and shoes with silver buckles, he himself perished on the guillotine that had removed so many of his enemies.

_The Listening Girl_.--Another of Greuze's exceedingly pretty heads. This picture, like the _Girl's Head draped with a Scarf_ in the National Gallery, is an excellent representative of that numerous class of the artist's work that consists of the heads of girls. The face is exceedingly dainty, and the workmanship excellent. The picture forms one of the Wallace Collection, and is, therefore, easily accessible to the public. Although it is now called _The Listening Girl_, it is not certain that this title expresses the intention of the artist.

_The Broken Pitcher_ (_La Cruche Cassée_).--No picture by Greuze is more widely known than this one. In one of Madame Roland's letters we are able to gain an idea of what was thought of the work at the time that it was painted. She has written: "It is a girl, naïve, rosy, charming, who has broken her pitcher. She holds it on her arm, near to the fountain where the accident has happened. Her eyes are not too wide open; her mouth is still partly open. She wonders what account to give of the misfortune, and does not know whether she is to blame or not. It would {55} not be possible to find anything more piquant or more pretty, and the only matter upon which one would be right to reproach Monsieur Greuze is that he has not made the little girl so sorry but what she would be ready to go to the fountain again." The derangement of the draperies, the incongruity of the lapful of flowers, the impossible way in which the pitcher is being carried, are not less characteristic of Greuze than the sweet face and the general charm and beauty of the painting. It is, indeed, one of Greuze's most winsome works, and its fascination will continue to captivate all but the most hypercritical. The original is in the Louvre, but Greuze painted the subject again with modifications, and there are a number of sketches and studies in existence. For instance, in the National Gallery of Scotland there is the preliminary sketch in oils for this work, and many prefer this sketch to some of Greuze's more finished pictures.

_The Milkmaid_ (_La Laitière_).--Pretty as is this picture, it embodies a city man's sentimentality concerning the work of a farm. The hard labour of an actual milkmaid, and the peculiar conditions of her employment, are especially fatal to dainty hands, for instance. Thus, as the presentment of a milkmaid, the picture is far from any truth to Nature; but as an engaging girl-picture it is one of Greuze's most graceful and successful works. In 1821 it was sold for 7,210 francs, but in 1899, when {56} it was bequeathed to the Louvre by Baroness de Rothschild, its value was estimated at 600,000 francs.

_Innocence_.--Many of the excellent qualities of Greuze's work appear in this attractive picture. It is true that the lamb is unfortunate, and, as Greuze's lambs usually are, is more reminiscent of the Lowther Arcade than of the meadow. Here also we see the head of a girl on the body of a woman; but the general effect of the picture is one of sweetness and tenderness, and the girl's expression is free from the affectations which have marred so many of the artist's paintings. This picture is one of the Wallace Collection.

_The Pretty Laundress_ (_La Belle Blanchisseuse_).--De Goncourt, in a criticism of Greuze's pictures, has written that the work that goes on in his paintings is but a simulation of work--that his washerwomen do not wash. It may be that this is the picture which inspired the criticism. A charming girl, elegantly dressed, sits in an impossible position, as far as any effective washing is concerned, before a ridiculously little bowl. The whole picture is most attractive, but it is not washing day; and, perhaps, after all, washing day is not precisely the best subject that an artist could have selected for sublimation. The picture is now in the collection of Count Axel Wachtmeister, at Wanas, in Germany.

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THE CHIEF WORKS OF GREUZE

The largest collection of Greuze's pictures is not in his own country, but is here in England, at Hertford House. The paintings forming that collection were included in the Wallace bequest, and thus they have become the property of the nation. Most other European countries have secured examples of Greuze's work, and several of his paintings may also be seen in America.

GREAT BRITAIN.

_WALLACE COLLECTION,_

In this collection alone there are twenty-one examples of the work of Greuze. Some of these are of the best, and a few illustrate the artist's imperfections. For instance, before _Fidelity_ and _Ariadne_ one has the same unpleasant sensation as when a girl spoils the effect of her beauty by stagey poses and by sentimental attitudinizing. _A Bacchante_ is gross and voluptuous. The most important pictures in the collection are:

A Girl with Doves. (See p. 40.) The Listening Girl. (See p. 54.) Portrait of Mdlle. Sophie Arnould. The Votive Offering To Cupid. The Broken Mirror. Innocence. (See p. 56.) Espièglerie, Girl With A Gauze Scarf.

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_NATIONAL GALLERY._

Girl's Head Draped with a Scarf (See p. 41.) The Head of a Girl. Girl with an Apple. Girl with a Lamb.

_BUCKINGHAM PALACE._

A Mother and Three Children.

The mother indicates, by a look, that she does not wish the oldest boy to disturb the youngest by playing his flute.

Girl in Cap seated on a Chair. A Girl's Head.

There are also pictures by Greuze in many of the galleries of private collectors. For instance, examples may be seen in the collections of the Duke of Wellington, the Earl of Rosebery, the Earl of Dudley, the Earl of Northbrook, Lord Yarborough, the Marquis of Lansdowne, Sir Frederic Cook, Bart., Mr. Alfred de Rothschild, Mr. Reginald Vaile, Mr. H. L. Bischoffsheim, Mr. Pierpont Morgan, Mr. Lesser Lesser, Mr. George Donaldson, Mr. Martin Colnaghi, Mr. Charles Morrison, Mr. Beit, and others.

_NATIONAL GALLERY OF SCOTLAND._

Girl with Dead Canary. Girl with Broken Jar.

This is a sketch in oils of the idea which Greuze afterwards painted as _The Broken Pitcher_, the famous picture that now hangs in the Louvre.

Boy with Lesson-Book. Interior of a Cottage. Girl with Folded Hands.

Other examples of the works of Greuze in Scotland are those in the collection of Lord Murray.

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FRANCE.

_PARIS, LOUVRE._

During the period of unrest that accompanied and followed the Revolution, many notable pictures were sold from France, and thus the largest collection of pictures by Greuze is not to be found in Greuze's own country. In the Louvre, however, all Greuze's characteristics may be studied in one or other of the works that hang there.

L'accordée de Village. (See p. 51.) La Laitière. (See p. 55.) La Cruche Cassée. (See p. 54.) La Malédiction Paternelle. Le Fils Puni. Le Portrait de l'Artiste. Le Portrait du Peintre Jeaurat. Several Heads Of Girls.

_MUSEÉ FABRE À MONTPELLIER._

La Prière du Matin. Le Gâteau des Rois. Le Petit Mathématicien. Jeune Fille, les Mains Jointes. La Jeune Fille au Panier. Tête de Jeune Fille. Etude d'un Enfant de Quatre à Cinque Ans.

BESANÇON.

Here are two particularly good examples of Greuze at his best:

Paul Strogonoff, Enfant. Tête De Jeune Fille.

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MUSÉE CONDÉ.

Tendre Désir.

Versailles has examples, and the traveller to any of the following, and to a few other towns, will find works by Greuze: Aix, Angers, Cherbourg, Dijon, Compiègne, Douai, Lille, Lyons, Marseille, Nantes, Nîmes, Rouen, Tournus, Troyes; and the members of the Rothschild family have many examples at their various places of residence.

GERMANY.

In Germany Greuze is represented by _La Belle Blanchisseuse_, in the collection of Count Axel Wachtmeister, at Wanas, and by pictures in the Art Galleries of Berlin, Leipzig, Karlsruhe, Munich, and Metz.

RUSSIA.

_ST. PETERSBURG, L'HERMITAGE._

La Paralytique Servi par ses Enfants

UNITED STATES.

Pictures by Greuze may be seen at Boston and at Philadelphia.

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RECENT CHIEF BOOKS ON GREUZE

L'Art du XVIIIme. Siècle. Edmond and Jules de Goncourt, Paris. 1854.

Histoire De l'Art Pendant la Revolution. Jules Renouvier, Paris. 1863.

Les Artistes Célèbres: Greuze. Charles Normand, Paris. 1885.

Histoire des Peintres de toutes les Écoles. Charles Blanc, Paris. 1862.

French Painters of the Eighteenth Century. Lady Dilke, London. 1899.

The History of Modern Painting, Vol. I. Richard Muther, London. 1895.

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